


Quarantine Blues

by iZombi



Series: Immortal!Sabaton AU [18]
Category: Sabaton (Band)
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Apologies, Canon-divergent story, Cleaning, Comfort, Crying, Dying alone, Gen, Heavy Angst (?), Hugging, Light trauma, Lots of Angst, M/M, MATURE FOR CHARACTER DEATHS, Trauma, death of your friend in front of you, disinfecting, forced into quarantining as punishment, non-painful death, quarantining yourself, watching your friend die
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-16
Updated: 2021-03-16
Packaged: 2021-03-24 15:02:09
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,308
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30074058
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/iZombi/pseuds/iZombi
Summary: - - - -This fic is something that me and my dearest friend @CamdenNightingale where talking about as a part of an AU she is working on with the Sabaton Boys being Immortals, (think the TV show "The Old Guard") !- - - -I hope you all enjoy reading it!- - - -
Relationships: Chris Rörland (Sabaton) / Hannes Van Dahl (Sabaton), Chris Rörland (Sabaton) / Tommy Johannson (Sabaton), Hannes Van Dahl (Sabaton) / Tommy Johannson (Sabaton), Joakim Brodén (Sabaton) / Chris Rörland (Sabaton), Joakim Brodén (Sabaton) / Hannes Van Dahl (Sabaton), Joakim Brodén (Sabaton) / Pär Sundström (Sabaton), Joakim Brodén (Sabaton) / Tommy Johannson (Sabaton), Pär Sundström (Sabaton) / Chris Rörland (Sabaton), Pär Sundström (Sabaton) / Hannes Van Dahl (Sabaton), Pär Sundström (Sabaton) / Tommy Johannson (Sabaton)
Series: Immortal!Sabaton AU [18]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2197443
Comments: 8
Kudos: 5





	Quarantine Blues

**Author's Note:**

  * For [CamdenNightingale](https://archiveofourown.org/users/CamdenNightingale/gifts).



> \- - - -  
> This fic is something that me and my dearest friend @CamdenNightingale where talking about as a part of an AU she is working on with the Sabaton Boys being Immortals, (think the TV show "The Old Guard") !  
> \- - - -  
> I hope you all enjoy reading it!  
> \- - - -

Joakim lay there on his bed, he felt like he couldn’t breathe, his head felt like it was underwater, and he was just so irrationally tired,

He hugged Baron tighter and closer to his body,

He felt like shit and he didn’t know why, after all, he had been very careful when leaving the house, always putting on his facemask, wearing gloves, and not touching anything without sanitization or being too close to others,

He lazily turned his head over to his window and watched the trees blow in the autumn breeze,

A chill ran down his spine that made him gasp in surprise, it felt like he had just entered a freezer for a second there,

He turned his head over to the door of his room and he tried to open his mouth to speak up,

_“P-Pär…!”_ He spoke up but his voice was far too small and quiet for anyone to hear,

So, he tried once more,

“ _P-Pär…!”_ still too quiet,

Before he could try and see if he could go again a cough wracked his body, it was so strong that he physically curled in on himself,

He felt tears prick at the corners of his eyes, he felt so weak and useless,

He wanted-

No, fuck that, he _needed_ someone’s presence,

He wanted Pär,

He willed himself once more to try, despite his sore throat begging him not to,

“ ** _P-P-Pä-ä-är!_** _”_ he could feel his voice nearly give out on him as it broke off mid-sentence like a pre-pubescent boy, his shout was loud enough to be heard but not as loud as he wished it to be,

He laid there on his bed feeling like absolute shit until he heard footsteps approaching,

He gave a tired and loopy smile, it seemed that Pär had heard him,

However, when the door opened, it wasn’t Pär who greeted him, rather Chris, his best friend,

Chris saw a horribly tired and pale Joakim laying down on his bed, his arms wrapped lazily around Baron,

“Sh-Shit-“ Chris began as he approached his friend, “H-Hey bud, h-how do you feel Joakim?” he asked, his worry over his friend rising inside him,

Joakim didn’t reply to him instead his eyelids seemed to just droop down almost as though he hadn’t slept in days,

“ _J-Joakim-, Joakim? Joakim!”_ Chris tried to gently shake his friend, to keep him from falling asleep and to focus on him,

“ _M-mnnmm?”_ came the tired reply,

“Joakim, are you okay?”

Silence,

“J-Joakim, answer me, man, are you ok?”

“ _M-mnnmm?”_ came the same tired reply, it seemed that Joakim was confused and was unable to tell what Chris was asking,

Suddenly, both boys could smell what could only be identified as meat cooking, it smelled delicious to Chris but Joakim didn’t seem to react to the smell at all, almost like he didn’t smell anything,

Cautiously, Chris extended his hand out to his friend’s forehead and touched it, he yanked his hand away at just how hot he was, if he had to guess, he’d say that Joakim had a fever of about 100-102 **°F** (37.7°C)

“ _Fuck”_ he cursed, “You’re _burning up_ Joakim…” Chris noted as he got up to go to the bathroom and get a small towel to wet Joakim’s hot forehead with is when Joakim weakly tried to stop him,

Chris looked to his face and saw Joakim crying, “ _D-d-d-don’t l-leave me, P-Pär…”_ he replied,

Chris frowned, Joakim seemed to possibly be delirious and confused,

“I’m not going to leave you, I just-“ he felt Joakim’s weakly try to hold onto him,

“-Joakim, I’ll be back I swear,” he said as he pulled away from his already weak grip, as he ran off to the bathroom to get a cold wet towel for his friend, Joakim lay there with tears running down his cheeks, he was convinced that his dearly beloved friend had left him for good,

When Chris finally came back he found Joakim crying and babbling pitifully, he wiped away at his tears and placed the now cold wet rag that he was able to acquire onto his head,

Joakim let out what sounded like a mix between a moan and a gasp, he shuddered hard at the sudden cold, so much so that his entire body trembled like leaf in the wind,

Chris held onto his hand tightly to help ease him, “Easy, I’ve got you… you’re ok…” if he was being honest with himself, Chris didn’t know for how long Joakim had been sick for, because if he had been sick this past two weeks and he hid it, then he had done an exceptional job at it,

He watched as his friend stopped shaking only to start coughing violently, he curled in on himself as the cough wracked his whole body,

Chris tried his best to hold him and give him as much reassurance as he could, “You’re ok… you’re ok… you’re so strong Joakim, you can pull through this…”

After the coughing seized, Joakim laid there shaking violently as he held onto Chris tightly, he felt so cold and hot all at the same time,

He cried and let out whimpers as he did so,

Chris held him and kissed his forehead, “Its ok, it's ok…” he rubbed his back lovingly, he helped Joakim lay down in a more comfortable position where Baron was with him as well and providing him with comfort,

He stroked his cheeks as he watched Joakim’s heavy eyelids fight to stay open, he looked to be just so completely exhausted, “It's ok… you can rest, I’ll be here…” he reassured his friend,

Joakim sighed and allowed his eyelids to finally fall shut,

His breathing seemed to ease and Chris saw what looked like the beginnings of him relaxing,

He held his hand and slowly watched in horror as Joakim’s lips were tinged a light blue, he reached out and touched Joakim’s face and noticed just how cold his body was now turning,

So, he ripped off the cold wet rag and grabbed the weighted blanket, he placed it on his friend’s body in an effort to get some heat into his body,

It didn’t seem to work as his body was only getting colder and colder as more time passed,

Chris began to panic and as he was about to reach out and try to wake Joakim did he finally notice the lack of the man’s chest rising and falling,

He froze,

He carefully watched his chest and when no movement greeted his eyes did he truly feel the panic settle in,

‘ _Oh no, oh no, no, no, no, no, no, NO!’_ Chris grabbed Joakim’s limp wrist and tried to feel for a pulse,

He couldn’t find one,

“ ** _FUCK!_** _”_ He instinctually yelled, and began to lightly smack Joakim’s cheeks in an effort to get him to wake up, or to “reset” as Joakim had ‘affectionately’ named their abilities,

“J-Joakim? Joakim! Joakim! _J-Joakim! W-Wake up damn it!”_ he called out and heard the sound of footsteps rushing upstairs,

“ _Wh-What happened?!”_ shouted Pär behind him,

“N-N-No! J-Joakim! Wake up! F-Fuck! Wake up!” Chris continues trying to wake up Joakim but so far nothing is happening,

Pär stands in the doorway, a shocked and horrified expression on his face, as he watches Chris hold a limp, almost corpse-like, Joakim in his arms,

Pär feels his heart _sink_ ,

He can feel tears prick at the corners of his eyes as he quietly watches Chris hold Joakim,

He isn’t moving at all nor responding to any sort of stimulus,

He truly looks like a ragdoll,

Like a corpse,

Devoid of all life,

Pär feels his hands clench into tight fists, he’s not angry but absolutely horrified at what he’s seeing, he feels a chill run down his back that freezes him in place,

He can’t unglue his eyes off of Joakim’s motionless face,

Suddenly Joakim opens his eyes and lets out a loud gasp, followed by a pained expression as he clenches his chest with one hand, there’s a phantom pain of when his heart stopped beating that he can still feel,

Chris’ first reaction is to let out a cry of relief, tears rolling down his face as he pulls him in for a deep hug, holding him tightly,

Joakim feels his own tears perk at the corners of his eyes, all he can remember before his final moments was Chris’ face, and being so, so, _so cold and tired_ …

Both boys hold each other tightly as they cry onto one another, they dare not let go of one another for fear of losing one another,

Pär, who is still in the doorway makes an audible breath of relief as he watches both of them, he quickly wipes at his tears that were forming in his eyes,

“What happened, Chris?” He asks him,

Chris wiped his tears away and turned around to face Pär, he still held Joakim close to himself, “I- A-.. J-Joakim died…”

“I saw that part, but what caused it?”

Chris swallowed, “A- I-I think that he was sick with something because his fever killed him-“

“-Wait, _sick_ …?”

“Yeah… why?”

Pär stood there for a moment in shocked silence, the only thing that was going around right now and making people drop like flies was a virus that people were referring to in the same way as a local beer,

“Oh, oh _god…_ ” Pär begins,

“Wh-What?” Chris states,

“Chris, get away from him-“ Pär warned and Chris absentmindedly obeyed,

Joakim let out a whimper, “W-Wait! Wh-Why?” he asked,

Pär bit his lip, “I-Its probable that you’ve already been infected while being with him…”

Chris’s eyes widened, “I-Infected???”

“Wh-“ Joakim turned to face Chris, “N-No way!” he explained, “B-But he’s completely fine! Nothing’s wrong with him!”

“ _For now…”_ Pär declares,

And at that Joakim shuts his mouth, he fearfully looked on at Chris and Pär,

“Chris…” Pär began, as he made eye contact with the younger male, “go to the bathroom, and get all of those clothes off, take a shower, I-“ he paused, “I’m going to get Hannes to help me clean your clothes and disinfect Joakim’s room…” he explained and watched as Chris left the room,

Joakim sat there in his bed in complete shock,

“… This brings me to my _next point_ …”

Joakim swallowed, “Wh-Which is?”

“You’re hereby under quarantine for the next two weeks, we need to make sure that you’re still not contagious… so you won’t be seeing any of us for fourteen days…”

“ _No-!”_

Despite the younger male’s outburst, Pär continued his explanation, “And sadly, I’ll have to clean Baron and the blanket before I give them back to you, I don’t want them infecting others…”

Joakim groaned inwardly in annoyance and anger, “N-No!” he exclaimed,

“ ** _Yes_** ” Pär replied in such a tone that only a fed-up father could give to a child who wasn’t listening to him, Joakim shut his mouth and bit his lip,

“Get up” Pär ordered and watched Joakim stand, “ _don’t_ touch anything and go to the other bathroom across the hall, get clean, I’ll bring you new clothes to wear. After that I want you to enter the extra room we have, the one with the two beds, and stay there, that’s where you’ll be for the next fourteen days… _understood?”_ he spoke,

Joakim was quiet, he didn’t reply back but did nod, indicating that he understood, he made his way to leave the room,

Pär got out of the way and let him pass, he watched him make his way down the hall all the way until he reached the bathroom,

Before he opened the door, Pär spoke up once more, “Oh and _one more thing_ …”

Joakim stopped to listen, “I’ll get you new clothes so you can just leave them, Hannes, and I’ll clean then…”

He watched Joakim give another wordless nod before finally entering the bathroom,

Pär sighed and rubbed at his temples, he was going to have to explain this all to Hannes,

Pär descended the stairs and walked to the kitchen where Hannes was still cooking,

“So, did you find out what happened?” he asked him,

Pär gave a nod, “Joakim’s caught what’s been going around lately…”

Hannes stopped stirring the sauce and turned off the heat, he placed a lid on the pot, he turned to face his friend “You’re kidding…”

“No”

Hannes gave a sigh, he knew that he wasn’t going to like what will come next, “And…?”

“He had his second death…” Pär stated,

Hannes’ eyes flew open, “No…” he breathed almost as though in disbelief, “But the kids’ had his first-“

“-A year ago, I know…”

Hannes sighed, “ _Christ_ …”

Pär nodded, “We also have another issue…”

Hannes raised his eyebrow but stayed silent,

“Chris was with him while he was still infectious so it’s likely that Chris will also have his second death as well…” Pär explained as he watched Hannes’ eyes widen again but he nodded,

“I’m guessing that you’re telling me this because you want my help disinfecting and cleaning, right?”

A nod,

Hannes sighed, “Alright… just let me finish dinner and we’ll get started on that…”

Pär nodded, “Fair enough…”

Off in the distance Pär heard shuffling and he raised an eyebrow, curious to know what was making such a ruckus, he approached the source of the noise,

And there he found Tommy but with a full respirator mask on,

Pär couldn’t help but grin and slight chuckle, “What’s wrong Tommy?”

“I heard you and Hannes talking, so I-“

“-grabbed a respirator to avoid breathing issues?”

Tommy nodded, Pär sighed, “Well… it’s good to hear that you worried about your health but don’t worry. Joakim and Chris will be in isolation for two weeks, we won’t see them, so, you don’t have to worry about getting infected…”

He watched Tommy nod but nervously wring his hands together, he was still very worried, “Yeah b-but…”

Pär gave him a reassuring pat on the shoulder, “You’ll be alright… I promise…”

Tommy didn’t say anything else, instead, he nodded and then left Pär’s side,

Pär stood there for a moment,

He sighed,

He knew that this was going to be a _long_ two weeks…

Sometime later, as Hannes and Pär finished with cleaning and disinfecting Joakim rooms and both Chris’ and Joakim’s clothes, Pär worked hard to quickly get Joakim’s fabled bear and blanket clean before he would go to sleep later tonight,

He wanted him to have them so that he would at least wouldn’t feel _too alone_ while in a room that wasn’t his own for fourteen days, as well as to get him tonight’s warm meal to him,

Pär intensely watched as the drier was currently hard at work drying Baron the Bear, he had Hannes’ help in operating both the washer and dryer,

Meanwhile, upstairs, Joakim sat on one of the beds of the large empty room,

Well, that was a lie, the room wasn’t empty, it had two closets, two windows, two beds, two nightstands, two desks, and two chairs,

It was a room that was suited for two people to live in together,

Joakim clenched tightly at the bedsheets on the bed he sat on, he could feel tears prick at the corners of his eyes and as much as he tried to fight them back, they would not relent,

Joakim let out a quiet sob, he didn’t like this, _not one bit,_

He absolutely _hated_ being left alone,

It reminded him of his time back in Iraq when he-

Joakim shook his head hard, the last thing he wanted was to be reminded of _that_ ,

Instead, he sunk down onto the bed until he was laying down,

He missed the feeling of Baron and the weighted blanket with him,

He truly felt so completely alone and it hurt him,

He didn’t want to be alone, and most importantly, he didn’t want to be in isolation,

_But_ ,

He knew that it was for the well-being of the others as well, so he quietly accepted his fate as he pulled out one of the two pillows from under his head,

He hugged it, pressing it tightly and close to his body,

It wasn’t the same as Baron, but until he got his things back, which he didn’t know when that would be, this would be a good substitute,

For now, at least,

Joakim wiped his tears away as he quietly stared out the window in front of him, his back was to the door of the room,

He tried to put those breathing techniques that Hannes had taught him to use since he was feeling very overwhelmed right now…

Pär eventually had gathered everything that Joakim would need, such as; tonight’s meal in a Tupperware, his phone and noise-canceling earbuds, sketchbook and art supplies, as well as Baron the Bear and the weighted blanket in a large bag,

The only thing that wasn’t in the bag was the bear that he carried on his side as he walked up the stairs,

He made his way over to where Joakim would be temporarily staying at and as he approached the door he could hear the soft sounds of crying,

He frowned as he stopped for a minute and listed on, Joakim sounded absolutely heartbroken at the prospect of having to be away from his friends,

His family,

But Pär did it for his own good and for the health of the others,

He could feel his mind briefly remind him of how he spoke to him, he had raised his voice slightly to him and was slightly harsh with him. But, he tried to convince himself, that he had to because the boy wasn’t listening to him,

‘ _Yeah, that’s true but you were a bit harsh on him…’_ his brain told him,

and Pär mentally kicked himself for that, he nodded and quietly sighed,

As he set everything down on the floor, he stood there thinking for a minute as to what he could do to apologize, he knew that the boy liked intimacy, such as being held, and Pär shook his head,

As much as he loved and adored Joakim he couldn’t hug him, so he settled on second best which was to write him something, so he momentarily left to walk over to his room where he quickly grabbed a piece of paper and wrote a message down,

Once satisfied he returned with the note and placed it inside the bag, he turned to the door and lightly knocked on it, he heard Joakim stop crying, only silence greeted him,

He sighed, “Joakim, it’s me… I’m here to drop somethings off, is that ok?

Silence,

‘ _The silent treatment, huh? Fair enough…’_ he thought as he opened the door to the room,

Pär saw Joakim laying down on the bed, his whole body was turned away from the door and he looked to be hugging one of the pillows, he wasn’t moving but Pär could see that he was breathing,

He frowned and said nothing as he placed the bag of goodies and the bear inside the room, once he was done, he closed the door behind him and walked away to head downstairs and eat with Hannes and Tommy at the dining table,

Chris had already eaten, he was quarantined to his room and was already fast asleep when Pär had returned with gloved hands to get the dishes,

When Joakim heard Pär finally walk away was when he finally decided to turn around, he didn’t want Pär to see him crying because he knew that it would only hurt them both,

As soon as his eyes locked on Baron he let out a sound of joy and relief, he scrambled out of the bed to grab him,

Once the bear was wrapped securely around his arms did he notice a bag at his feet,

He opened it and found not only his blanket and a few personal belongings but tonight’s meal too!

He could hear his stomach growl upon seeing the meal, his mouth drooled at how tasty it smelled before he went off to eat it was when he noticed a small green paper in the bag,

He raised a curious eyebrow and wondered what it was, so, he put down the meal on one of the nearby desks and set down Baron on the bed he was laying down on,

He picked up the note and read it,

“ _To sætur litli björninn minn, I’m sorry for how I spoke to you earlier… it wasn’t my intention to come off as angry or upset with you, I was just worried for your health and of the others, I hope you can forgive me as I brought you your bear, blanket, and a few other things to help make the next two weeks bearable…_

_Love, Pär”_

Joakim found himself smiling softly at the note, he happily sighed as he was glad to hear that Pär wasn’t upset with him,

However, he then quickly rose an eyebrow, reading the note over he noticed a few words that he seemed to recognize,

“… _sætur litli björninn minn…”_

He stopped for a moment and thought, "...my sweet little bear...?" he paused for a moment, surely that's what was written on the note but he needed to be sure and that was when he quickly remembered that his cellphone was now with him, so he grabbed it and quickly unlocked it,

He opened up his web browser and typed in “ _GOOGLE TRANSLATOR”,_

The webpage displayed the translator that was provided by Google, on one side it said, ‘detect language’ while the other said English,

So, on the side of ‘detect language,’ he typed in those words,

It took a minute before the words were finally translated, and what greeted his eyes made his whole face flush,

“… _my sweet little bear…”_

Joakim found himself smiling like an idiot, Pär had been calling him his ‘little bear’, a term of endearment,

_Oh_ …, it turns out that he was correct after all about the meaning of the note, which made him feel completely overjoyed...

That made him feel much better about everything, especially now that he knew what Pär had been calling him, however, he swore to himself that he would never let Pär in on the fact,

Putting the note away in his pants pockets did he finally head over to the desk where he had left the Tupperware that was filled with his meal, he was starving and wanted to eat something before heading to sleep…

At the tenth day, mark was when Chris finally began to feel like absolute shit, everything in his body hurt and he felt so heavy that even the idea of lifting his hand up was seeming to him like an impossible task,

He also had trouble keeping his eyelids open,

He sighed and laid there, staring up at the ceiling in quiet thought,

‘ _Is this what Joakim felt like that whole time…?’_ he thought to himself, ‘… _Fuck, this is absolutely abysmal…’ _

Suddenly, on top of the horrible chest pains and sore throat, Chris could feel himself get really, really cold,

He felt like he had walked into the arctic completely naked, he shuddered as his heavy eyelids closed,

The last thing Chris could feel was the cold and intense feeling of being tired…

Chris sat up with a loud gasp, his hand was clenched over his chest, he could still feel the distinct phantom pain of when his heart had stopped beating,

Thankful to be alive and rid of the virus from his body, Chris went back to laying down,

However, what he wasn’t thankful for was experiencing a second death, and although it wasn’t as harrowing and as traumatic as his first, it still was decently frightening,

Chris curled in on himself as he laid in bed, the bedsheets covered him as he quietly cried himself to sleep…

The two weeks had actually blown by fairly quickly for Joakim, he had counted the days down on his cellphone to make sure that he wouldn’t forget, and today marked the end of his quarantine,

He sighed happily as he thanked his stars for this momentous moment, where he would finally be able to be in his room, with the rest of his things and most importantly with his family,

Joakim heard a knock at his door and he replied with an ‘ _Open!’_ to the visitor,

The door opened to reveal Chris and Pär, both males approached him with Chris being the only one walking at a quickened pace,

As soon as Chris reached Joakim, he pulled him in for a deep hug, a soul-enrichening embrace, one of which he was in desperate need of,

Joakim didn’t even think twice as he too hugged his friend, burying his face deep into the crook of the other’s neck,

Chris kisses Joakim’s forehead, “I’m so happy to see you…” he stated and heard Joakim give a muffled reply of his own, Chris didn’t need to know what he said as he could tell that the other was very happy to see him,

Eventually, the two pulled away, and next care Pär who held Joakim close,

Joakim smiled as he hugged Pär back, he quietly relished in the much-needed human contact that he had been deprived of for fourteen days,

“Joakim…?” Pär spoke up,

A muffled reply followed,

“ _Please_ … next time you’re sick, tell us in advance that way we can prevent _any of this_ from happening, alright?” he asked as he watched Joakim peak his head out from the hug,

Sky blue met grass green, and for a moment, Pär was reminded of the ocean and of his old home,

“Yes, I’m sorry…” he answered,

Pär nodded and smiled, “Good, I’m glad…” and placed a loving kiss on his forehead…


End file.
